Monday’s Vital Data: Apple Inc., Micron Technology, Inc. and Ford Motor Company

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options - Monday’s Vital Data: Apple Inc., Micron Technology, Inc. and Ford Motor Company

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U.S. stock futures are tanking this morning. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average are off more than 100 points as fears of a trade war between the U.S. and China grow. As a result, the Dow is headed toward its fifth consecutive losing session.

On Friday, the U.S. announced $50 billion in new tariffs on Chinese imports. In retaliation, China offered up $34 billion in tariffs on U.S. goods, mainly targeting agricultural products.

The escalation has Wall Street worried. Heading into the open, Dow futures have plunged 0.72%. S&P 500 futures have fallen 0.63% and Nasdaq-100 futures are down 0.74%.

In options activity, volume was quite brisk on Friday. About 24.3 million calls and 20.4 million puts changed hands on the session. On the CBOE, the single-session equity put/call volume rebounded to 0.61 — a two week high. The 10-day moving average, meanwhile, held at 0.54 — it’s lowest point since January.

Options traders took aim at technology firm Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) on Friday. Apple is ramping up content deals, while Micron reports earnings this week. Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) rounds out the group after Chinese auto sales plunged in May.

Let’s take a closer look:

Monday’s Vital Data: Apple Inc., Micron Technology, Inc. and Ford Motor Company

Apple Inc. (AAPL)

Apple announced on Friday that it would spend $900 million on original video content this year. The company has even signed Oprah Winfrey to a multi-year deal. However, Apple has yet to say where or how viewers will watch this new content.

AAPL options traders took the news in stride. Volume on Apple stock options rose to 560,000 contracts, with calls snapping up 63% of the day’s take. Overall, the July put/call open interest ratio comes in at 0.67.

The recent rise in Apple’s put/call OI ratio is likely due to the stock’s drop of about 2.6% from its June highs. Profit taking is beginning to settle in after APPL tagged a fresh all-time high earlier this month.

With trade worries heating up, I would expect a bit more profit taking. In other words, look for a rising put/call ratio alongside elevated call volume for AAPL stock.

Micron Technology, Inc. (MU)

Overheated Micron stock is finally taking a breather this month. The shares rocketed to their highest levels since the dot-com era in May, and have spent all of June so far digesting those gains. This pullback could be good news for MU stock traders, as the company reports earnings this Wednesday.

Analysts expect Micron to report a profit of $3.12-per-share on revenue of $7.75 billion. Both figures are up massively percentage wise year-over-year. EarningsWhispers.com even puts earnings higher at $3.16-per-share.

But China remains a wildcard for Micron, as the country is investigating antitrust issues on flash memory chip pricing. The recent pullback in MU stock is a nod to these concerns, and any additional news during this week’s report could deepen those issues.

MU options traders don’t appear too concerned, however. Volume on Friday soared to 361,000 contracts with calls making up 68% of the day’s take. The weekly July 22 series put/call OI ratio is also quite bullish, coming in at 0.55.

While this optimism is a bit of a concern, a continued decline heading into earnings could leave room for a post report rally back to MU’s recent highs before another round of profit taking sets in.

Ford Motor Company (F)

Are U.S./China tariffs finally hitting American automakers? It’s a bit too early to tell for certain, but Ford Motor is certainly not doing well in the country. On Friday, Ford said that auto sales in China fell 29% to 61,744 vehicles.  What’s more, Ford doesn’t believe that its momentum will return in China until next year when new vehicle models arrive in showrooms in large enough numbers.

F stock is certainly struggling with trade war fears. The stock is down about 2.27% in the past week. But options traders are having none of it. Volume on Friday surged to 249,000 contracts, with calls gobbling up 89% of the day’s take — the kind of activity you expect to see surrounding an ex-dividend date.

What’s more Ford’s July put/call OI ratio comes in at 0.50, with calls doubling puts among back-month options. Oddly, optimism continues to run extremely high, despite worsening U.S./China trade relations. Traders should be wary of this situation.

As of this writing, Joseph Hargett held no positions on any of the aforementioned securities.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2018/06/mondays-vital-data-apple-inc-micron-technology-inc-and-ford-motor-company/.

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